Author: staff
John Howard tells POLITICO about his moral qualms and global policy legacy on the 25th anniversary of the Tampa affair Bush Summit EU trade deal dust-up New NSW gun laws followed by drop in gun hand-ins A message from Amazon: Thousands of businesses in Australia sell on Amazon. Like Lash Therapy, a small business in Melbourne started by three friends — Emma, Lauren and Jessica. They couldn’t find a solution to keep their lash extensions comfortable without nasty chemicals — so they made their own. Today, Amazon helps them reach customers across the US, UK and Canada with next-day delivery. Learn…
By Harry Bligh with AFP Published on 26/08/2026 – 15:17 GMT+2 Europe’s second longest river, the Danube, has experienced record low levels after hot weather leading to drought across the continent. The lack of water has exposed some remarkable finds. In northern Bulgaria, volunteers have been searching a dried-up river bank near the city of Ruse after a mammoth jawbone and tusk fragments were discovered last month. The latest search found fossilised oysters which are thought to date back around 60 to 65 million years. The mammoth discovery has led to a surge of people wanting to join in the search for uncovered…
Thousands of revellers descended on the Spanish town of Buñol on Wednesday for La Tomatina, hurling up to 165 tonnes of overripe tomatoes at each other in just over an hour. Trucks loaded with tomatoes ploughed slowly through the crowd as people in the cargo beds pelted those below, who threw them straight back. White shirts turned pink within minutes while residents doused participants with water from balconies. Buildings along the route were covered with tarpaulins beforehand. More than 20,000 people were expected this year. Spanish news agency EFE reports that roughly 40% of participants over the past three years…
Published on 25/08/2026 – 9:05 GMT+2•Updated 13:29 Spaniards had to wait until 20 August this year to reach the so-called Tax Freedom Day — the point at which, according to one think tank’s calculations, the average worker has earned enough income to cover their taxes and social security contributions. According to a study by Fundación Civismo, a Spanish liberal think tank, the estimated burden was equivalent to 231 days in 2026, two more than last year. The foundation said the increase was not necessarily the result of explicit tax rises alone. When Pedro Sánchez became prime minister in 2018, the…
With the bloc racing to strike a deal on its budget before elections next year in France, Spain and Italy that risk turning the chance of agreement from difficult to nye-on impossible, the next four months are critical for the EU’s stability, Costa’s legacy and whether leaders like Merz and Stocker can prove to their voters that Brussels isn’t wasting their money.The leaders meeting in Berlin don’t just want the size of the budget to shrink by hundreds of billions of euros, they also want shift the way it is spent away from areas such as agriculture toward defense and…
Spanish police have revised down the number of minors recorded in Ceuta following the mass arrival of migrants from Morocco last month, after discovering duplicate entries in their databases. According to the Interior Ministry, some procedures involving the same child had been recorded as separate cases, inflating the overall figure. On 18 August, police said they had located, identified and placed 2,168 minors in the care of the Ceuta authorities since the mass arrival of people from Morocco on 30 July and up to 09:00 that morning. Following a review of the records, the figure now stands at around 1,500.…
By Christina Thykjaer & Euronews Published on 26/08/2026 – 20:24 GMT+2•Updated 21:02 A 5.1-magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Wednesday, causing shaking in several areas in the centre and northeast of the country, including in the capital, Bogotá. The tremor comes just 16 days after a major 7.4-magnitude quakehit the nation, leaving more than 300 people dead. A preliminary report measured the new tremor at a magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale and the depth at 140 kilometres, but revised figures from Colombian Geological Survey (SGC) put it at magnitude 5.1 and at a depth of 149 kilometres. According to the SGC, the…
Washington is effectively asking every firm on the planet to choose between Iran and the American financial system. At a US Treasury press conference on Monday, Scott Bessent laid out a campaign he called an “economic onslaught” against Iran’s financial connections, and said he already expects “an announcement of a major financial institution being sanctioned by the end of this week”. The plan, dubbed Operation Economic Outcast, follows Bessent’s warning on Sunday of an “economic D-Day” for Tehran. The US Treasury designated close to 60 companies, individuals and vessels across several jurisdictions, including Chinese nationals, and suspended licences that had…
NATO arsenals have long been composed of high-tech, sophisticated missiles worth several million dollars each, which land forces, navies and warplanes have been firing against unmanned aerial vehicles worth just tens of thousands of dollars. Now, the main goal is to significantly reduce the so-called cost per kill, meaning how much money has been spent to neutralize a threat. Most recently, the French air force used costly missiles against cheap Iranian drones sent toward Gulf countries. French legacy arms companies such as MBDA, as well as startups including Alta Ares and Harmattan AI, are working on lower-cost, mass-producible weapons to…
Ireland is keeping the door open to nuclear power as a potential answer to the growing energy demand from data centres, even as the government insists its immediate energy strategy will remain firmly focused on renewables, an Irish government official told Euronews. “There is a need to consider all options (with decarbonising potential) in the long-term,” a spokesperson for the Irish Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment said. Political talks about the future of data centres are heating up in Dublin, the Silicon Valley of Europe. According to the country’s Central Statistics Office, data centres consume roughly 21% to…